U.S. contacts re Congressman Markey and his decision to travel virtually:

  • Jeff Sharp, Select Committee, +1-202-225-4079 office, +1-202-285-7040 cell

  • Eben Burnham-Snyder, Select Committee, 202-225-4081

Bali contact re OneWorld.net’s ‘Virtual Bali’:

  • for information, to arrange interviews, or request images, call or email Jeffrey Allen, Managing Editor, U.S. Center for OneWorld.net and Producer of OneWorld's 'Virtual Bali' series, on 088 739 13975 or at jeffrey.allen[@]oneworld.net

NUSA DUA, BALI, INDONESIA - Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has linked up with OneWorld.net’s 'Virtual Bali' initiative to participate in the UN’s climate change negotiations currently underway in Bali, Indonesia.

He will be harnessing the power of the interactive window opened for the duration of the UN negotiations (Dec. 3 - 14) by OneWorld.net, working with Cisco Systems, designed to facilitate conference participation without the carbon cost of flying.

Congressman Markey will deliver an address to the United Nations and the world using a 3-D animated version of himself (an "avatar"). He will address the conference at 9.30 am (Bali time) on Wed., Dec. 12 from a virtual Bali stage provided by OneWorld.net’s archipelago on Second Life. The address will also be streamed live at www.oneclimate.net/virtualbali and replayed all week at the conference, demonstrating an extremely low-carbon way to encourage stronger U.S. government support for climate action.

Criticism of the carbon footprint of the UN conference has been rife. Congressman Markey will be saving an estimated 5.36 tonnes of CO2 emissions by not flying to the conference but attending virtually instead. His decision will stand as an example for many future participants who want to interact without emitting flight-generated carbon.

"By choosing not to fly to Bali, Congressman Markey is walking the walk," said Jeffrey Allen, the Bali-based producer of OneWorld.net's Virtual Bali series. "He's demonstrating that by thinking outside the box and making use of technologies, individual citizens and government leaders alike can take strong action against climate change. Congressman Markey is modelling what OneWorld has always believed: that by opening new communications channels, the Internet can and should be an agent of human rights and sustainable development."

In addition to transmitting Rep. Markey’s address to participants at the UN conference, the OneWorld.net team is facilitating daily discussions between Internet users around the world and participants who have elected to be present in person at the Bali summit.

OneWorld.net's team of just two in Bali but many more in London and Washington, with assistance from Cisco Systems, are enabling citizens all over the world to interact with these participants – live – in an embryonic new form of democratic communication that allows an ever-widening range of people to engage with key political processes, without having to be formally included by conference organisers or being able to afford the cash or the carbon to fly.

“It may seem like virtual world technology is just for an elite handful - but it won’t be for long,’ says Anuradha Vittachi, co-founder of OneWorld.net and instigator of its OneClimate.net/VirtualBali initiative. “By 2011, we expect 80% of current internet users to be using virtual worlds, and for that curve to keep rising rapidly, especially with users from Asia. At OneWorld.net, we’ll be working to enable everyone, everywhere - from US politicians to people in the world’s poorest communities – to speak out about what really matters to the human family.’

Citizens in avatar form have been arriving each day on the OneClimate archipelago from 12.30 to 2pm GMT to watch press conferences and pose questions and offer comments to climate activists and experts in Bali. Dr. John Holdren, the distinguished climate scientist from the Woods Hole Research Center in the United States, was one such expert; M.J. Mace, Program Director for FIELD and advisor to the Pacific Island states delegations, was another.

During "Virtual Bali," the avatars “fly” in from all over the world. So far their locations include the UK, Turkey, Canada, Italy, Australia, Japan, China, the Netherlands, Serbia, Rumania, the United States, South Africa, Germany and Belgium, but the list grows daily. Many stay on after the interactions with the Bali delegates to continue discussing climate issues among themselves.

Yoe May, an avatar who has been participating from Japan in the daily broadcasts on OneClimate Island, said: “You know, I've been talking about [Virtual Bali] a lot today to people outside Second Life, and many of them said something like: ‘A-ha! Finally I understand what's so great about this virtual reality thing!’.”

When Congressman Markey’s decision was announced to the Virtual Bali crowd, there was a round of applause from the avatars present.

Notes to Editors:

WHO: Edward Markey's Avatar, Virtual Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

WHAT: Address to UN Bali Climate Change Conference in Second Life

WHERE: The Internet, from One Climate Island,

NOTES:

The OneClimate initiative is a OneWorld project, instigated by Anuradha Vittachi, co-founder of OneWorld.net, in September 2006. It consists mainly of two platforms:

  • the OneClimate archipelago in Second Life, where people can learn about climate change and meet others interested and involved in the issue

  • www.OneClimate.net is OneWorld.net's social networking platform dedicated to facilitating discussions and surfacing ideas about climate change. It has been called the "Climate Facebook".

OneWorld.net was founded by award-winning BBC producer Peter Armstrong and Sri Lankan refugee and journalist Anuradha Vittachi in 1995, with the goal of harnessing the democratic potential of the Internet for human rights and sustainable development.

Vittachi pioneered the ‘Beam-Me-In’ method of attending conferences without expending travel-carbon in August 2007 by using OneClimate Island to address a Women TechLeaders conference at the Anita Borg Institute in Florida, USA.

According to Climate Care, a UK-based company that tracks travel-related carbon dioxide, a single individual flying from Washington, DC to Bali, Indonesia, would be responsible for the emission of 5.36 tonnes of carbon dioxide as a result of the 20,381-mile round-trip flight.